One of Australia’s leading community service organisations, Mission Australia, has called for more homeless services and transitional housing in Tasmania as well as a national housing strategy to tackle the root causes of homelessness, rather than just the symptoms.

Mission Australia’s Tasmanian State Director, Noel Mundy, said around 30 per cent of Tasmanians who access the organisation’s Personal Support Programme (PSP) – a service aimed at assisting people with serious barriers to employment, such as a disability or mental health issues, to find a job – are either in unstable housing or homeless…and numbers are on the increase.

“We’re seeing more and more clients who are either homeless or at risk of homelessness. Because PSP isn’t a specific homeless service, we refer people to the agencies and accommodation centres where they can receive help – but we’re finding that in many cases the beds and other resources they need just aren’t there,” said Mr Mundy.

“There are some fantastic providers of crisis and medium-term accommodation in Tasmania, but as I’m sure they’d agree, we’re in desperate need of more services to meet demand.

“It’s almost impossible to help someone with whatever associated issues they might have – a lack of a job, mental illness, drug and alcohol addiction, etc – if they don’t have a stable home.”
Mr Mundy said the 2001 Census recorded 100,000 Australians are homeless on any one night.

“Of that number, around 2,500 are in Tasmania,” he said.
“What’s particularly disturbing about Tasmania’s homeless population is that 60 per cent are under the age of 25, compared to the national figure of 46 per cent.

“But these figures are out of date. Based on our experiences – and what other agencies are saying – we believe homeless numbers across all groups (women, men, families, young people) are increasing.
“In order to tackle the root causes of homelessness and not just the symptoms – both in Tasmania and elsewhere – we need a National Housing Strategy.

“This National Homeless Persons’ Week, Mission Australia is calling for a housing plan that is national in scope, coordinated across governments and which has a long term vision.

“Chief on the list of any strategy should be affordable rental housing and home ownership. Affordable housing acts as both an important exit point from homeless services and also as a preventative measure against falling into homelessness.

“Any new residential developments within Hobart and other major cities should have affordable rental housing and home ownership as a central part of their mix.

“A National Housing Strategy would also need to address the need for more public housing and boost support services to help us tackle the rising numbers of homeless people.”

Media contact: Tas State Director Mission Australia Noel Mundy on 0428 111 679